Supreme Court asks UP DIG to visit Hyderabad forensic lab to compare voice with hate speech clip

Bureau Prayagraj. The Supreme Court recently directed the Telangana Forensic Sciences Lab to submit a report in a sealed cover on the forensic analysis of the voice samples and purported audio clip of a Uttar Pradesh police officer, who is accused of making anti-Muslim remarks.

The Court directed Uttar Pradesh DIG Sanjeev Tyagi (earlier Superintendent of Police, Bijnor) to appear before the Director of TGFSL, Hyderabad on 09.03.2026 at 11.00 am to give his voice sample.

The court also allowed petitioner Islamuddin Ansari, whose phone contained the alleged audio clip of Sanjeev Tyagi containing false statements, to be present at TGFSL on the same day to help the forensic officers in locating the audio clip.

After the investigation, TGFSL has to submit the report in a sealed envelope along with the transcript of the clip. The court also asked TGFSL to find out whether anything had been deleted from the petitioner’s phone, which contained the audio clip.

“Since apprehensions have been raised about any deletion from the phone in question, we leave it to the Director of TGFSL to investigate this aspect and submit a report as to whether anything has been deleted from the petitioner’s phone, which was seized by the police after the date of which has been intimated by the petitioner to the Director.”

Insofar as the Court received an application from FSL requiring a “Letter of Advice” along with the transcript of the audio clip to facilitate the forensic investigation, the Court held that no Letter of Advice was required as the investigation was being conducted as per the orders of the Court.

A bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and K Vinod Chandran was considering an application filed in the quashing plea of ​​Islamuddin Ansari, against whom a criminal case was registered for spreading false rumors about the audio clip.

On December 8, 2025, the court quashed the criminal case against Ansari, noting that the FIR was registered after he had proposed to initiate legal action over the audio clip containing alleged objectionable comments of Tyagi, who was then serving as SP in Bijnor. The court also directed Tyagi to submit his voice sample along with the alleged audio clip to Telangana State FSL Laboratory for verification.

After this, the case was heard on December 12 on an interlocutory application, in which a change was sought in the earlier order of the court asking Tyagi to submit his voice sample. The court was told that the mobile phone on which the audio was recorded was already in police custody. In view of this, the Court directed the SP, Bijnor to safely deliver the seized device to the Director of FSL, Hyderabad.

This case occurred in March 2020 during the Covid 19 pandemic. According to the petitioner, he had sent the audio clip to the then SP, Bijnor, to confirm whether the voice in the clip was his or not. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against the petitioner under Section 505 of the IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act, alleging that he spread rumors with the intention of inciting communal enmity.

In 2021, the Chief Judicial Magistrate filed the charge sheet and took cognizance. After the Allahabad High Court refused to quash the proceedings, Ansari approached the Supreme Court.